Be careful if you are using Roku, read the Privacy Policy.
Be careful if you are using Roku, read the Privacy Policy.
Roku provides the simplest way to stream entertainment to your TV. On your terms. With thousands of available channels to choose from.
Audio, electronic, visual, thermal, olfactory, or similar information.
Clarification: after a bit of research it seems the olfactory section pertains to CCPA California law, many places have olfactory in the privacy policy because it is required by the law. I can't believe we reached a point where we have to put olfactory in the privacy policy, but then again it won't be long before Smell-O-Vision becomes reality.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smell-O-Vision
They removed it, archived here: https://archive.ph/YYBuJ
Also have a California ip you get a different privacy policy.
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Why would I use Roku anyways? It's such an inferior television operating system.
I've had good luck with it for years in comparison to Samsungs junk. I only briefly tried LGs when I bought my C3 but fell back to the Roku because it's simpler to use (as a CEC device to turn on the audio receiver and change inputs automatically) and syncs between other Rokus. It also has the least amount of issues with Plex and all my Linux ISOs since they're in varying formats that don't always play nice with other clients (like the god damned POS Xbox client).
I understand there's a lot of tracking and phoning home but it's the least worst option in my experience.
If you have files with a bunch of different formats and codecs you don’t want to use anything Roku, your direct play options are extremely limited. This becomes almost a hard requirement when dealing with hevc 4K hdr/dv stuff unless you’ve got a server with quicksync or some oomph.
I’m probably going to get a lot of derision for this because it’s Lemmy, but for wide direct play coverage you either want an Nvidia Shield or an Apple TV 4K. I like the Apple TV solution, and everyone in my household is familiar with the UI. The Shield is the only one of the two to support Atmos audio if you have ceiling or upward firing speakers. It’s also not apple if you’re ideologically opposed to owning Apple products.
I’m not surprised you fell back to a Roku box from the built in TV apps, but if you’re going to go for a dedicated streaming box Roku, Firesticks/Firecubes, and Chromecasts should be the last resort due to ads in the experience and codec support.
The codec support varies from one Roku unit to the next. I have a couple of ultra 4s and they play hevc 4k without problems.
I've considered moving to shield, I tried Apple TV and I hated it.
I mean if my options were “Roku level ad invasion” and “Let Tim Apple own this ass every time I boot up an Apple TV” I’d be starting my power bottom fiber regimen yesterday, but you do you boo.
Look at this guy with choices.
I mean - these days u go to store and buy a tv. Many people don't even know what os is on it.
LOL fair. If I have a choice (we'll see when I move out) I take Google TV over Roku everytime. Roku's software is horrible, Apple got sued over doing far less than what Roku does with their operating system.
I hope you don't think actually think that Google doesn't do the same shit.
I do but at least they don't prevent you from suing them like Roku does.Never mind, I guess they do
https://support.google.com/store/answer/9427031?hl=en
https://www.reddit.com/r/GooglePixel/comments/r265c7/how_to_opt_out_of_googles_binding_arbitration/
The operating system is still better though. Suck it Roku.
All these companies are equally shit ha. Also i've found that you can block a lot of the telemetry on all these OS' with Pihole.
Nah, not really. It's gonna be cat and mouse with pihole.
Only there will be 5000 cats and 200 mouses.U can't win fight as a mouse - use a Kodi and don't play by enemy rules.
If u care as much
I'm not going to argue that Roku's software is better, it's definitely worse, but honestly, it's not that much worse and doesn't really impact day to day usage.
The voice recognition in the remote is slightly worse, the OS is less pretty and a little slower to navigate, but when 90% of its time being used is either playing something or displaying a screensaver, none of that really matters. It still opens instantly when I turn the Xbox on, it still lets me open whatever app I need and select a show, and it has one feature that Google TV doesn't have that's genuinely great which is private listening, where the audio will play from the Roku app on your phone so you can use headphones and not wake anyone.
Honestly, I would buy the best picture quality TV I could and not worry about Google OS or Roku OS at this point. And if you do get a Roku TV, I definitely don't think it's worth giving Google more money on top of that.
Here I am just learning that there are tv remotes with voice recognition.
Cool as that sounds… tv screens with built in ads sound terrible and maybe it’s a blessing to be behind the times.
Hmm I can't say I've ever used the voice features. But I (unfortunately) got my family into the Roku ecosystem awhile ago (before streaming blew up, we had got rid of DirecTV longgggg ago when it became too expensive and my dad had lost his job) and every single Roku device we've ever had except for the 2018 Roku Premiere+ just slowly gets more and more broken over time. The interface will take multiple seconds to respond to a button press after a couple years or so. It's so bad that we have a Roku TV that's so slow that there's a Roku device plugged into it that we use instead, and even that device is so slow that I'm washing it got burned with fire. On top of that I can tell that certain apps know that they're running on crappy hardware and software (particularly the Sling TV app), and deliver footage at a horrendously low video quality as a result.
except for the 2018 Roku Premiere+ just slowly gets more and more broken over time. The interface will take multiple seconds to respond to a button press after a couple years or so.
weird, back in 2020 I set up a tv in my office to stream. I pulled an old Roku from who knows when (pre2014 when we moved) and hooked it up and it worked great.
All models except the Roku Ultra will likely need to be replaced every 12-18 months. After that they start getting incredibly slow. The Ultra's seem to hang in there for at least 36 months, sometimes longer.
I've been using the same roku box for the last 13 years. Still works just fine.
I hear good things about the Ultra but I'll never buy one. The Premiere+ is still killing it and I don't think we'll need to replace it, and nobody in the family seems to care as much about this as I do so I don't think they'll be replacing the other Roku products in the home anytime soon.
I hope you don't think actually think that Google doesn't do the same shit.